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Factual: Life Stories

True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives.

Outlook: Sarajevo Orphan: My Family, the Enemy

Oggi Tomic

23/07/2015

Sarajevo Orphan: My Family, the Enemy

BBC World Service - Outlook, Sarajevo Orphan: My Family, the Enemy

The film-maker who discovered that his birth family were shelling him during the conflict

Film-maker Oggic Tomic was abandoned by his mother at birth. He later discovered his birth family had been shelling him during the Bosnian conflict, yet he decided to meet them.

Oggi Tomic was abandoned by his mother at birth and grew up in orphanages in Bosnia. He ended up in Sarajevo at the height of the siege of the early 1990s. He was then taken in by a family in the UK where he now lives and works as a film-maker. But when he set out to make a documentary about his search for his birth family - he uncovered a shocking truth. His uncle had been a member of the Serb army that were shelling the orphanage where he had been living during the siege.

It is now three months since the earthquake which caused death and destruction in Nepal. In Thame village 3,750 metres up in the mountains of eastern Nepal, many buildings were destroyed - including the school. Kami Doma is one of the teachers who has worked hard to reopen the classrooms in a series of donated tents.   

Mahani Teave is a world famous concert pianist who has studied at some of the most prestigious music schools and now tours all over the world. But it was not easy for her to make a career in classical music. She grew up on Easter Island, a tiny remote island famous for its huge stone statues, on the southern tip of Polynesia in the South Pacific Ocean. When Mahani was little the island's only piano teacher left. Mahani had to move to Chile to pursue her passion for music. But she is determined that the new generation of children on Easter Island should not face the same problem. So she has started a music school there and brings top performers to the island to inspire her students. 

Mario Macilau is one of Mozambique's most successful young photographers. His powerful, arresting images of daily life in his home country have caught the attention of some of the most important galleries in the world. It is all a long way from where Mario started out. As a child he was sent out to work to provide for his family and at times he even slept on the streets of Mozambique's capital Maputo.  Mario told Matthew Bannister what life was like for him in those early years.

(Photo: A young Oggi Tomic pictured with camera around neck amid the ruins of Sarejevo)
Credit: Chris Leslie and Oggi Tomic

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